"LUCKY FORTUNE GARMENT Factory Workers Have Had Their Garment Wages Cut by More Than Half"

Workers at the LUCKY FORTUNE GARMENT factory located at No. (-), Saya U Htun Street, Shwe Pyi Thar Industrial Zone (4), Insein Township have been told by workers that their wages have been cut by more than half.

The factory ... employs more than 1,000 workers to make FieldCore and Inextenso brand pants and shirts.

The factory uses a wage system. Previously, the factory paid 22 kyats per pair of pants and paid 450 kyats for a full day's work. However, the workers said that the factory has now reduced its wage from 22 kyats to 10 kyats, and has also demanded an increase in the wage for 10 hours of work from 450 to 570 kyats, according to the workers.

If the specified [target] is not met, they are not allowed to eat or drink water. Previously, if the [target] of clothing is met for a whole day, a weekly bonus is given. Now, only the line manager and the supervisors and superintendents get bonuses for the same amount of clothing, and the workers who make the clothes are not given any more. The line manager and the supervisors and superintendents are now pressuring the workers to work every day because they get a weekly bonus.

“Since the daily wage has been increased and the clothing allowance has been reduced, the workers are working harder and harder, and they are not self-sufficient as before. In the public opinion, the employer only gives the daily wage increase, and there are some who are being cut, and the clothing allowance is higher, so the employer gets more profit and the workers get nothing more,” said a worker.

In the workplace ... [targets are being demanded] that cannot be achieved by a single worker, and a machine line is [requiring] up to 570 pieces of clothing in 10 hours for 55 super workers.

"If the [target] requested by the employer is met, they will demand more the next day. The factory manager ... also shouts through a microphone once an hour and shouts at the lines that are not getting clothes. Then she hits the top of the machine line and curses. When the workers on the machine line gather and do not work because the fabric wages have been reduced, the employer says that they have already told the WCC and asked them to sign it. When the workers ask about the WCC, they do not say anything and do not know anything. They only pressure them to do the work again. The WCC is the WCC that the employer has chosen and set, so there is no solution," the worker said.

"In the workplace, workers are not allowed to take sick leave, so if they take a day off because they are sick, they are criticized. They cannot take sick leave at all, and they do not give them their daily wages. The super-supers do not say anything about the number of days they have been employed. The rest of the workers are paid 6,000 daily wages and 20,000 regular wages if they take sick leave," he said.

Although there is a medical clinic in the workplace, they have to buy their own medicine because there is not enough medicine.

"The labor office came to inspect the violations because the media reported them, but it was not a random inspection. The inspectors informed the employer in advance, so they were told in advance that there were no violations in the workplace. They only answered that everything was fine," the worker continued.

[Translation via Google Translate]